The National Road in song and story

mi

\m\s HISTORIC^ survey;

in Song And Story

FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
John M. Carmody, Administrator

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION

P. C. Harrington, Commissioner

Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner

Carl Watson, State Administrator

Printed in U. S. A.

THE

NATIONAL

ROAD

in song and story

Compiled by

Workers of the Writers' Program

of the Work Projects Administration

in the State of Ohio

Sponsored by

The Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society

Copyright. 1940

c/^cknowlcdgmcnts

CT'HE basic research for this book was prc-
-*■ pared mainly by workers in the district
supervised by Emerson Hansel. Research for
the verse and the section, "The Milestones,"
was in the care of Alfred Bath; the poetry
resulted from copy submitted by Robert A.
Griffith and Walter Richardson.

The illustrations were drawn by Arthur
Griffith of the Ohio Art Project, supervised in
the State by Charlotte Gowing Cooper.

For sponsorship of this book and for much
assistance and cooperation, the Ohio Writers'
Project thanks the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society, particularly E. C. Zepp,
William D. Overman, and Harlow L. Lindley.

Harry Graff, State Supervisor
The Ohio Writers' Project

^ /UV,^:'>T.

C3
cr-

cop- a

Foreword

THE year 1940 marks the centennial of the completion of
"The Main Street of America" — the "Old National Road."
It was this historic artery that afforded to the Eastern colonics
access to the vast domain lying west of the Alleghenies, and
which came to constitute the life line tying together the far
flung components of the American republic.

The genesis of what was affectionately termed the
"National Pike" was concurrent with the birth of the Ohio
Commonwealth, and its completion a century ago was an
epochal event. For a while it was "time's noblest offspring"
but, as the course of empire took its way, it gradually shared
importance with the canals and other means of travel and trans-
portation. And now, the clumsy ox-drawn vehicle, the stage
coach, and the horse and buggy, convoying the humble and
the great, are but memories. And so, too, are the canal systems.

The canals are gone, perhaps forever. But not so the
National Pike. With the advent of automotive transportation,
it has assumed foremost importance and, as U. S. Route 40,
it may be traversed from Atlantic tidewater to Pacific shoals.

Credit for research, compilation and preparation of the
manuscript of this booklet devolves upon the Ohio Writers'
Project. The illustrations were supplied by the Ohio Art
Project. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and numerous local
civic organizations have made possible its distribution.

The Old National Road is symbolic of the beginnings, the
development and the coming of age of our Nation and our
State. It is hoped that this booklet will crystallize this senti-
ment in the minds of those who may read it.

H. C. Shetrone, Director,
The Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society.

The National Road

The ^oad

CT'HE NATIONAL ROAD is one of several highways that
cross the Nation. It is not the Lincoln Highway, with
new fame; it has the long tradition of the first national road,
the path that brought the Colonics across the Ap/palachians
and spread democratic union. It was driven west from the
Colonics after the Revolution, when men through exuberance
or necessity took up again the western journey that had begun
in Europe.

As a rule, men do not build roads in order to settle a
country. They use whatever means arc at hand — waterways
or animal paths — and make their way forward. But when
they settle and raise their families and want civilization, they
build roads from the old homestead to the new and to their
neighbors.

The National Road did not begin settlement of the trans-
Appalachian country. Explorers, traders, missionaries — these
people had traveled the Great Lakes and the rivers and the
forests, and founded towns in the Old Northwest. After the
Ordinance of 1787 opened the Ohio country to general settle-
ment, a small, but important, migration began, founding
towns, cutting farms into the wilderness.

As settlement was made, the pioneer families started to
produce foodstuffs and handmade goods. When they had
surpluses, they looked around for markets. Good roads were
desirable, but rare, and commerce lagged.

In 1796 Congress authorized Ebcnezcr Zane to open a
road across Ohio that would connect Wheeling, West Virginia,
with Limestone, Kentucky. Zanc's Trace resulted; completed

The National Road

in 1798, it went west to Zancsvillc, then southwest through
Lancaster and Chillicothe to the Ohio River.

During the years in which the State of Ohio was being
formed, plans for a road through it westward were being
discussed here and in the East. In 1806 Congress provided
for the building of a road from Cumberland, Maryland, to
Wheeling, West Virginia. Work went forward with few
difficulties until the road reached the Ohio River. TTicn peti-
tions were drawn up that the road be extended west. Argument
and Congressional debate and Presidential veto delayed the
project until 1825, when Congress consented to the exten-
sion. On July 4, 1825, amid speeches and fire-crackers and
refreshments, ground for the road in Ohio was broken at
St. Clairsville.

The road crept west section by section; it reached Zanes-
ville in 1826, Columbus in 1833, and Springfield in 1838.
The stretch from Springfield to the Indiana line was cleared
in 1840, but it was not an improved road until many decades
later.

The State of Ohio was now neatly bisected — and conven-
iently tied together — East to West. The National Road did not,
however, stop at the Indiana boundary ; later additions brought
it across the Indiana and Illinois plains to the Mississippi. As
U. S. 40 it continued west across the great prairie States,
crossed the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, struck north to
Salt Lake City, then west through Nevada, over the Sierra
Nevada Mountains to San Francisco.

Traffic in Ohio did not, of course, await total completion
of the road within the State. Almost from the day it was first
begun at St. Clairsville, the road became an important local
artery connecting with the East. It was significant as the first

The National Road

great thrust of the United States over the Appalachians; and
as it was extended west, it became the great national highway
for Western migration.

Taverns, mile markers, a few museum pieces, and possibly
several other traces remain of the life on the National Road
during its heyday from about 1830 to the Civil War. Many
people important still — men like Henry Clay, women like
Jenny Lind — traveled the road and stopped at the taverns.
And there are many stories about them — for example, the one
about William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren, who
happened to be campaigning in the same locality, just west of
Columbus, in 1840. "Old Tippecanoe" turned up at a
tavern, his arm in a sling from too much handshaking, and
ordered drinks for the house; while Van Buren made the
rounds for tea in the politest society.

The people who lived along the pike were envied, chiefly
for the news they gathered from the most colorful characters
on the National Road — the teamsters with pack trains, the
wagoners with the great Conestoga freight ships, the stage
drivers with the gaudy coaches. Each had distinct habits and
moved in separate circles of road society. The wagoners, for
example, drove long distances and stopped at wagon houses,
set back from the road to allow room for parking the wagons
and tying up the horses; whereas the stagecoach drivers were
relieved at frequent intervals and stayed at the handsome inns
along with the passengers. The wagoners, and to some extent
the muleteers, were like the keelboatmen en the rivers — tough,
boisterous, hard-drinking, full-blooded. They ate and drank
and argued and brawled with the full vigor stimulated by a
hard, healthy life. Great men, such as Tom Corwin, rose
from the ranks of the wagoners.

The National Road

The stage coach drivers were chosen for their driving
skill, weight and strength, and sociability. Their reputations
were about like those of today's movie heroes; traveling
celebrities often selected their drivers and were themslvcs
honored by the asscKiation. They rode in gay coaches named
for Presidents and explorers and Indian chiefs and other famous
people — on stage coach lines called the Oyster, the June Bug,
the Good Intent, and other peculiar things.

Those were not the only people on the move. Whole
families came along the National Road in their own small
canvas-covered wagons; individuals on foot and horseback
frequently ambled by. These travelers encamped near the
taverns so that they could mingle with the fun-lovers without
going to the expense of lodging in the building.

After the Civil War, when the railroad began to supersede
other modes of transportation, travel on the National Road
declined. North of the road, cities were enlarging with new
heavy industries; south of it, the old centers of skilled industry,
such as Cincinnati, adapted themselves more slowly to the new
machine age. Then interurban electric railways drove tracks
along the road, and people traveled for pleasure — a trend stimu-
lated sharply when the automobile became practical. Within
recent years a vast volume of freight has been carried on the
road.

Such, briefly, is the pageant of travel on the National
Road. It is hard to overestimate the importance of the road in
spreading the products and people of the United States and at
the same time integrating the country. The National Road has
been the migratory, exchange, and unifying medium of a new
Nation, and it is still the carrier of a huge interstate traffic that
continues its historic functions.

The National Road

The Song

"Poet:

Hear, Traveler!

The road,

slipping between hillsides,

grows garrulous with age,

wishes to speak.

Traveler, listen:

This road

US-40, Ohio,

is important,

the Rational %o2id.

with a history.

This road takes rank with

the Oregon Trail,

the Sante Je Trail,

the i^orthwcst Tassage

(still undiscovered) ,

and the golden road

to Samarkand.

This road, I say, is important,

the first travelers' way

through the forest.

Where dust rose

from the horses' hooves,

where whips cracked

and drivers' curses,

where iron rims

of the wagons jolted,

the smooth purr

of the auto pours

cloud-easy motion.

10

The National Road

IA[ow, Traveler — the <^oad.

%oad:

It was long, the completion —

section after section

layer after layer

rippling westward —

it was long ... it took years. . . .

Up in the mountains,

holding their sides,

bending to valleys,

through night and day and weather,

time forwards I have wondered,

longing for completion;

and in the hot grasses,

hiding and sleeping,

in the soft grass lengths,

leaning with wind,

I dreamed of meeting

the mighty ^Mississippi.

Ration:

It was a hard job,

fighting the rock

ribs of the mountains.

cAnd at first

you were merely

a blaze in the forest,

but soon became

a track for mules

with serpentine trains.

Like a tendril of ivy,

you clung to the mountains,

vine-grasping the roughness,

at times growing swiftly —

Jonah's gourd swiftness —

a tentacle seeking

the heart of a continent.

The National Road

11

c/fnd I remembered
you as a buffalo trace,
where the hooves
of the hump-beasts
pounded the earth
to a pavement.

'Jioad:

The buffalo!

I remember their trampling;

they built mc

with music of thunder,

shook by feet asunder,

I knew them well:

liquid eyes in massive heads,

shaggy-haired, low legs racing

the path they bared

from the saline shore of 'Baltimore

to Ohio's fertile land;

beyond the dense and thick-shrubbed forests

their dust-clad thunder ran,

and rolled oflf into quiet

with the coming-in of man.

They b^at my pattern hard

on the slippery river fords,

the soft tangle of the canebrakes,

the bare solid on the ridges.

'ly' / /y/

Ration:

Others came:

the people of the mounds;

the Indian with his singing

marking his way

on saplings

like that one,

now a crooked

tree pattern

on the Rational 'Road.

names for rivers,

12

The National Road

^oef;

Such trails as these had interlaced
the land God blessed the most ;
and trails the hunting Indian traced
became the highway for a host.

The strands were caught up and entwined,
twisted towards the setting sun,
and the national motto's well designed
to fit the road: "From many, one."

'lioad:

cAnd I can tell how all this came to be,
how all these paths were joined in me.
Jrom Cumberland to Wheeling first I trailed,
across the cv^ppalachian fountains sailed,
against the c/^llegheny uplands fought,
into the valley travelers brought,
turned in sweeping spirals west,
joining paths that were thought best,
steadily through the valleys swept,
where silence and a wildness slept.

iJ^>Gi'».

O and those lands

through which I sped

were beautiful,

though full of dread

and stained where men

were dead

from violence.

The land was savage then

(claws and wings)

where farmers

are at peace

with soil and man

and hoe

the corn for bread.

The National Road 13

I was the slow course of empire,

barely preceding it.

e//long the barren fiastern rocks

where the (polonies chafed,

between mountains and sea,

the small, torn trails

of bridle-paths

linked stream to stream

and town to town.

^n franklin,

loyal servant to the king,

for trade was westward seeking.

In the year 1744

the English, westward sneaking

for land, sought the Iroquois.

*T'hrough the wild, bushy stand

of this virgin timber land

(tree on aged tree)

Then came a band of men

who had been hired when

the King had named his plan

"Ohio C^mpuny."

They had to cut

and widen out

a one-man trail

made before

by i^emacolin,

whose Indian eye

and hand

had marked

a sinuous trail

along his people's paths.

In this small group
was Washington,
young surveyor

14

The National Road

£cLUA,<zJ.9-€iXjC

to be purveyor
of freedom
to the |A(ation.

Ration:

It was a time of struggle!
(French and 'British fight)
O the great days of battle!
(fleur-de-lys on the waters,
the St. Lawrence, the Lakes,
the father of Waters;
Union Jack on the coastline,
furling west, and north
toward (panada.)

1755. *Braddock marched

an army through.

Washington, aide-de-camp,

knew the forest.

Slashing through,

four abreast

to Laurel Hill

turning south,

they cut this wagon road

in 1755.

Foolhardy 'Braddock marched along,

and the Indians hummed his funeral song,

and there wjas musket and martial music,

arrows humming and crackling guns . . .

(musket crack and arrow song)

"Braddock stumbling in wild abandon . . .

(orations gasp and cry and cheer)

men reeling with silent sabre strokes

*5Poor "Braddock, dying in a barbarous meadow.

(Washington bought

the ^reat Meadows

where ^Braddock died.)

The National Road 15

%oad:

cAnd all this time
I slept in the mind
of Washington
through all the turmoil
of the fighting
the shouting
and the clamor,

"Poet:

Who spread this aisle ' ^=^9r«3»

between the arching trees?

Who marked the course

and charted out the way?

It ran through all

the tortuous valleys, climbed

the slippery hills,

and slithered through the vales,

then crept out on the prairie

like a snake,

sinuous

and beautiful.

|A(o man could vision this,

this mighty spread

of aisle for league

on weary league —

all through the Territory,

winding to the ©Mississippi,

inching

towards

the rufiiing prairie,

mile on mile

of gasping grass,

Ration:
cA man is nothing.
This goes beyond
the brain of man,

16 The National Road

beyond his finite powers;

it's shaped

by great events —

like the urge that

forced Leviathan

to hulk up from the deep

and batter out

his life upon the shore.

1776. "Revolution

(tea and taxes)

uniforms and drums

bright red uniforms and drums,

minute men in farmer's clothes —

bright blood stains on any clothes —

and liberty,

a nation born,

a bright new flag

of happy stars

and memorable

stripes.

1776. Two Zanes,
from the £ast,
bent west
and settled Wheeling.

'Jioad:

Out of the "iPennsylvania mountains,

down the valley of Ohio, leaping

the river, threading the forest,

white blaze on dark trees,

I came,

seeking Zanc.

That was the forest !

the greatest stand

of hard timber

ever seen;

The National Road

17

I ran through it
like a handsaw
through walnut.

illation:

1784. cA man with a map

on a rough table

in the crude cabin,

peering at the map, searching

a way over the broken backs

of frowning mountains,

pince-nez on his nose,

staring at the map.

There!

the door rattled,

a stride across

the earthen floor,

the young man, ^allatin.

(In Tennessee

a town was named for him.)

Speaking to Washington,

"Cumberland ^ap dumber Two"

(he was certain and pointing)

"is the only logical way."

cAnd Qallatin and Jcflferson,

the Ohio Company,

and others

looking west

with vision,

in 1787

by an act

of Congress

made the Old Northwest

ready for the settler.

Then over me came families
full of the west-hunger,
bringing change.

18

The National Road

Slowly they came,

a small trickle

spotting the wilderness,

settlers, squatters,

holding the land

by rifle rights,

watching the wary Indian.

"Road:

Ho, I remember their coming,

fair-skinned men of the £ast,

contentious,

loud-voiced,

urging the horses

straining in mud

with great Conestogas.

They came in under the frown of the savage

(guns and frowns and arrows) ;

they cut their clearings like sores in the forest,

new-raw on dark green,

pushing the strength

of a brash new nation.

Then the war-cry started ringing,

Indian hatred started singing

paeans against squatters

staining shores of clear, cool waters ;

screaming women, musket powder,

made the conflict all the louder.

Came "^ad" c/^nthony with horses,

routed all the Indian forces.

This occurred in '94

and opened wide my settlers' door.

Ohio:

I enter here,

though not formally,

through fibcnezer Zane,

The National Road

19

who made a way
from Wheeling
to Zanesville
then southward
to Limestone
(now ^^aysvillc),
Kentucky.

amasses from the south and east
pushing to the north and west,
crossing my beautiful rivers,
crowding my tumbling hills,
gouging my plains with the plow,
tearing my forest with axes —
these,

settling me,
trampled the road
into being.

Ration:

1802. S^^n gathered

in solemn session

(people and papers and talk)

four times

gravely thinking.

<A new State?

Yes, it was good.

Said the leaders of law:

"We give you an (lAct

to finable the people

to establish as fact

the State of Ohio."

I marked my property

in 1803.

Zxm&i c/Ohajze^

20

The National Road

"Poet:

Ohio,

I have dreamed of seeing
a chain of people moving;
and in my dream these
smoke-thin ghosts of men
(great bodies, full curses,
hard with the bottle, hard with life)
were singing, singing,
looking
west.

THE PIONEERS

We heard of Ohio,

we heard of the road,

we crossed the stern mountains

with the lightest of load.

We followed the river
where it wandered between
the hills and the heights
and the meadow's rich green.

*>i«*-

We came with guns ready,
with listening ear;
who knew when the warwhoop
would strike us a-near?

We came with the rifle
preceding the axe,
our cattle urged forward
by smarting whipcracks.

We knew not the glamor
of the frontier romance —
books sold by the thousand
in Cngland and prance.

The National Road

21

Our life was held close
in rough, calloused hands
toiling darkness to darkness
on thorn-bearing lands.

The lands farther west
were those full of gold,
which Spaniards through finding
and force could still hold.

'But we, we had cabins,
had children and farms,
and we couldn't listen
to gold's siren-song charms.

cAnd though we dreamed fondly
of making that quest,
we had traveled our distance. . . .
Our sons took the West.

%oad:

Those were the first settlers,
(after explorers and trappers)
clearing land for cabins -r-
tree-rich land of Ohio
and mellow flood plains —
before I was builded.

Ohio:

They built business
and commerce
and had much
to sell.
*iBut roads
to the £ast
were rutty
enough to hold
a horse.

22

The National Road

The wisdom

of the men

who gave me

statehood

had provided

for a sinking fund;

money saved

till 1806

was found enough

to start

the |A(ational <7^oad.

lioad:

The work began

in 1808;

I first reached out

in Ohio

at St. C^airsville,

July fourth,

1825.

Statesmen

spaded the earth;

there was clamor of fire-works

and spouting of words,

liberal drinking

and raising of glasses.

That was good. Then

came excitement

and fever-straining men,

hammers thumping,

picks pinging,

great, strong bodies

making a highway.

6very soul
that traveled
ten miles
of my length

The National Road

23

paid toll,

life blood,

my renewal.

farrow-rimmed wheels

that cut my surface

sometimes to the binding —

these I charged most;

so wheels were broad.

The sharp hooves of cattle,

the iron horse -shoes,

even the slow,

heavy-shod oxen

dug deep

through the limestone,

and everything paid me toll. . . .

■^.^^-:^l0.

c/^nd in the winter

(if you were behind the wagoner)

you could see him cut the ice

with a gadget like a sled

hcK)ked under the sliding hind- wheels,

or with a chain

or a thing like a plow

somehow stuck

upon the rear.

Ohio:

There were

men of the road

hauling freight

like the

keelboatmcn

on rivers.

The hearty wagoners

loved food

and whiskey and songs,

old stories, lusty jokes,

and deep laughter.

-/tt^rysi/itte

ENGLEWOOD SPRINGFIELD ^°4ial21iS.

j„,6A0"«"»^'

26

The National Road

cAt night

they lay

in a large half-circle,

at the vast fireplace.

Their horses,

never stabled,

wore a blanket,

from a feed trough ate

at the rear of the freight.

cAnd a wagon house yard

on many a night

held many tired horses

by the side

of many heavy wagons,

while inside

many swarthy drivers

acted as described.

"Poet:

In summer they slept by campfirc light
under slim breezes and the starry night,
their bulky sweat-flecked horses right
near the wagoner's snores.

"Road:

cA coachman's life

was gentler strife

of dash and whirl and whoa!

then off again

with a freshened team

to another

"^iddap, let's go."

There was dust galore
and rickety-rock noise
of wriggling door
and creaking floor
and the driver's voice

The National Road

27

and the coach's horns

as it madly tore

past well-stocked barns.

Then the coachman's roar

as faster, faster still

it gave its passengers

a thrill

or chill

(or spill,

though rare) .

The swaying top

on its leather springs

took up again

its rhythmic swing

past the crunch, crunch,

of a freighter string,

with a galloping rush

rolled into a ring

of excited folk,

where the tavern king

filled his hands to bring

the welcome of the house.

(v^nd then, the meal!

Ration:

What game and fish
and crops
and fellowship
were made
for aught but
a coach stop?

"Road:

It took skill of great order

to keep the coach to the border,

as the charioteer

the coach would veer

28

The National Road

past rock-spincd ledges

down sharp hill-cdgcs,

hands tense,

feet braced.

c/fround and away

dived the horses,

their manes and

their forces

tightly strained,

to the valley

to the roadside

to the relay post,

where the harness was stripped

and fresh horses departed.

cAnd once

there came

down the road

one of the stages,

hard-driven, careening;

it made a bad turn,

spilling

Henry C^zy

from the Concord (7oach.

"Kentucky C^slJ'" he muttered,

"meeting Ohio limestone."

"Poet:

Those old Concord coaches!

(in museums now)

When you sat on the driver's seat

you could sec all around —

up to the motionless blue above

and down to the whizzing ground

over and past the forest greens,

across their rolling tops,

far to the front

and to left and right

The National Road

29

to where the horizon drops.
•But those hills and colors,
those sights and streams,
that sky and clouds,
they're all gone now
and are merely the stuff
which the dreamer sees.

Ohio:

cAnd laws were passed

to care for the road —

a dungeon

and bread and water

or a fine of 500

for those who'd dare

deface the Rational ^^^oad.

c/^nd I compelled each person
to contribute two days
towards your repair
annually.

So great was the traffic,
so large the number
of people who traveled
and tons of freight,
that towns laid stones,
a misleading line,
to lure the profit
off the ftA(ational <^oad.

%oad:

The year was 1840,

a lazy date with history,

when I reached

the level plains

of Indiana.

30

The National Road

Traveler:

Then did you stop
and rest, content
to grow old,
wrinkling
undisturbed?

%oad:

eA(o! the restless

energy of the lA^ation

pushed me further

into the newness and rawness

rough with challenge.

cAnd afterwards

along that stretch

came trail blazers

anxious to leave,

anxious to trammel

new forest.

I followed their lead.

Let me tell you,

what man has felt I've felt.

I've known the rhythmic, ceaseless

fall of hammers,

I've known the breathless, sweatful

afternoons

when there was no wind

springing up among the hills

that cling to the streams

like timid lovers.

I strove to reach the prairie,
in a westward push
that brought the Ration
to the princely 'Rockies
(pile on pile of tiring,
heavy stone)

The National Road

31

and beyond.
cAnd all that time
I was alive,
beating with traffic.

I left behind

the many-tongued taverns,

the relay stations for stages,

the tollgates clustering

the woodpiles cluttering

the roadway,

fringed thickly with farms

quietly watching the pageant. . . .

and I leaped West!

1 leaped west with the hungerers, the never-

tired dreamers!
I ran across the prairies with fire-speed
I slunk through brown foothills
I splashed through the rivers
I clattered a wild way toward the mountains,
the god- forsaken "Rockies
geyser-rilling with triumphant
westward-singing people —
the course, not of empire,
but of emperors who cried,
"We'll cross the Continent!"

"Poet:

cAnd those stay-at-homes, those farmers,
what did they think and say?

%oad:

They spoke of all the restless men
that came in here and left again;
they spoke of all the fabulous lands
awaiting those same nervous hands
along the west, where £1 'Dorado
and all the rich dream lands of shadow

,pir.ir5^5><^=^'

32

The National Road

the solid world has ever known

vanish under the falling sun.

They spoke of all these roamers' crimes,

deplored the passing of good old times;

they preached to their sons that home was best,

while their eyes were hungry with looking west.

Ration:

Came a chug of smoke
and a little black bug,
with a big, spouting funnel,
rolling thin-spoked wheels
on threads called steel
over the hills and through
in tunnels.

cAnd he grew and he grew
and he pulled and he pulled
till he stretched
from sea to sea.

^oet:

Years of slackened motion
on the .Rational <^oad
while the Ration
reached the other ocean.

%oad:

Then a spark gave power,

and cars click-clicked

along the tracks

that flanked me.

cA thread of light

lay on the way;

a thin horn moaned.

The cattle bellowed,

the horses jumped,

the farmer cussed,

and pulled his shay

aside.

The National Road 33

H^ation:

c/fbout 1908

a growl-chug voice,

four turning legs,

changed the transportation

and the ways

of living

in a Ration.

%oad:

I have to wear ^%Sp^f ^<<

a stiff front shirt made out of cement
and work at night through hours (spent
by former drivers sound in bed)
now filled with rumbling tire-tread.

H^ation:

^rom coast to coast
the longest stretch
of paved road
in the world!

Ohio:

Engineering improvements
and features of note
I might here mention
arc part of the road.

e^o more quick bumps
as you ride on cement
wherever is placed a steel bar,
instead of the former black tar;
here is a new kind of joint,
"^on-extruding expansion."
The point
is comfort,
ease-floating.

34

The National Road

c/^nother wrinkle in
a new road's life
is the clover leaf,
a way designed
to lessen time
and traffic strife.

I have had great trouble.
•Between railroads and tollroads,
the canal and the river,
(railroads running steel
through the river,
life line of the valley)
there was clamor and uproar,
nowhere peace in the valley.

Where the boat-horn had made sweet music
the steam-whistle screamed out its signals.
cAnd people began telling time,
not by clocks or by watches,
but by dumber four's whistle
at the local grade crossing.
"She's on time," they'd say,
or "She's two minutes late."

"Road:

cAnd now your commerce wheels

a mighty tide along;

there's not a soul but feels

the fervor of the song

sung by leviathans,

with wheels of juggernaut;

where horses used to prance,

they move like soul-seared thought.

Their eyes split up the darkness;

they need no other light.

I am your pride, O Ration,

symbolic of your might.

The N a tional Road

35

^ahum, the prophet, foretold

thousands of years ago:

The chariots shall rage

in the streets,

they shall jostle

one against another

in the broad ways:

they shall seem like torches.

they shall run like the lightnings.

Ration:

^rom coast to coast
the longest stretch
of paved road
in the world !

Stiff with pride and hard cement,
the road lies
between stately rows
of wire-draped poles —
jnonotonous throng
of people's voices.

*Poef:

^one the loud color of drivers,

with their great noises!

"The noise of a whip,

and the noise

of the rattling

of the creaking wheels,

of the thudding

of the prancing horses. ..."

^oad:

*But there are other noises:
the snicker of tire
treads on the concrete,

36

The National Road

the feverish, strident
blast of the klaxon
(out-stcntoring Stentor!)
the labored throb
of trucks straining
against the hill slopes.

^o more the great, dark forests!
their depths and secrecies no morel

Ohio:

Those depths and secrecies were danger.

See the a^adonna:

a woman, with a man's courage.

her breath caught up in fear,

an arm for a babe

an arm for a rifle

against danger.

•pain and hard work

and women to endure them

and bear the sons

for a growing Ration:

". . . we came with brave women . . .

consecrated to . . . making ten tall sons . . .

where . . . only one savage had been."

That was the stuflf of roadways,

*Poef;

tSp more the glad, brave nights of sleepless stars,
no more the rough-hewn friendliness of tavern
bars.

H^ation:

^cver again, and better so!

It took hard men to sleep outside —

skin, a blanket, then frost —

and the barroom fights were murders.

The National Road 37

|7\(ow there arc tourist cabins,

row on neat row,

water inside

or just outside

the door.

Health and cleanliness

and well-cooked food

and no waiting

for the seasons.

futile contriver of dreams!
Only the road-seekers
know the road!

Ohio:

Only the road-seekers!

they know

the marvelous sweep

of sunrise colors

topping the forward hill;

know greys, pastels,

grey mornings

when the mist

is damp with rain;

know the thundering

beat of raindrops,

the blistering

of the sun.

They hear the turtle dove mourning,

the acrid crow gloating,

the majestic wheeling

of the buzzard,

and the sumac's

torch upon the hills,

the red and yellow

and gold and haze

of Indian summer,

and the strange delight

of far new places!

38

The National Road

%oad:

Only they know

the lure of changing skyline.

Only they know

my proud triumph over rivers,

over mountains,

my speed over the plains,

my weltering in the cities,

my proud contemplation

of two brave seas!

Only they know

the sleepiness of farms,

the sharp whiteness

of my winter glittering,

the drip of tree blossoms,

trees arched on the road,

the long aisles of trees,

the majestic monotone

of telegraph poles,

my sharp turns

and sudden surprises!

Sing, contriver of dreams,
sing of the glad days to come
on the Rational *^oad,
of my path to the seas,
my road to the sun!

!»&■>

The National Road 39

The .Milestones

1749 A Group of Virginians received a grant of land in the
Ohio country from King George II, of England, and
formed the first Ohio Company.

1750 Christopher Gist was employed by the first Ohio
Company to blaze a roadway from Cumberland, Mary-
land, to the Ohio River, via Pittsburgh, and to report
on land values in the Ohio country.

1752 Gist arranged with Nemacolin, a Delaware Indian, to
mark out a path for this roadway.

1755 General Braddock constructed a military road along
the path laid out by Christopher Gist, going west from
Cumberland to Laurel Hill, Pennsylvania, then north-
west to Fort Duqucsne. General Braddock was defeated
near Fort Duquesne, July 19, and died at Great
Meadows four days later.

1784 General Washington and Albert Gallatin discussed
possibility of a road through Pennsylvania.

1796 Colonel Ebenezer Zane received permission from
the Continental Congress on March 25 to open a road
from Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), to
Limestone (now MaysvUle) , Kentucky.

1799 John McIntire erected a tavern at Zanesville, Ohio.

1802 Jacob Haltz opened a tavern at St. Clairsville, Ohio.
Congress appropriated $30,000 to defray expense of
laying out and making a national road, April 14.
The Enabling Act granting a State Government for
Ohio was passed by Congress on April 30.

1803 Ohio was admitted into the Union as a State, March 1.
A Compact Was Made between Ohio and the Federal
Government agreeing on a two percent levy on all Con-
gress land sales in the State, to be set aside for national
road purposes.

1805 Robert Taylor opened in Zanesville a tavern called
the Orange Tree.

On September 30 it was reported to Congress that the
Ohio Congress land sales from July 1802 to September

40 The National Road

1804 amounted to $636,040.27, two percent of which
($12,652.00) was to be allotted to construction of the
National Road.

On December 19 a Senate committee made its report
to Congress; it suggested various routes to the West, but
recommended the road from Baltimore to Cumberland
westward.

1806 On March 29, President Jefferson signed the Congres-
sional act establishing a national highway — to reach
from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Mississippi, and to
pass through the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Zanesville was only city mentioned by name in the
document.

Jefferson on March 29 approved the act empowering
him to appoint three commissioners for the National
Road.

1808 On January 1, the commissioners submitted a report
to the President covering a survey made and recom-
mending a straight line to the Ohio River. The report
also suggested the straightening and widening of the old
Braddock Road between Cumberland and Laurel Hill.

President Jefferson reported to Congress approval
of the course charted for the National Road. It was to
go from Cumberland to Brownsville, Pennsylvania,
deviating to pass through Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

Contracts were let for clearing the surveyed route of
the National Road west of Cumberland.
Surveying was completed to Wheeling.

1810 Since Zanesville was at this time the capital of Ohio,
the State Legislature met in the Orange Tree Tavern.

1811 On March 3, Congress authorized the President to
permit the National Road to deviate from the straight
line approved, so that it could reach several towns, pro-
vided that the road did not miss the towns mentioned
in the law (Wheeling and the capitals of Ohio, Indiana,
and Illinois) .

President Madison directed, on March 3, that
$50,000 be paid from the General Fund to the builders
of the National Road, Cumberland to Brownsville.

On April 6 a contract was let for building the first 10
miles of the National Road west of Cumberland.

The National Road 41

President Madison directed that $30,000 be paid
from the General Fund for the road between Cumber-
land and Brownsville, on May 6.

A Contract was let for the second section ( 1 1 miles)
of the National Road west of Cumberland, in August.
First 10 Miles of the road west of Cumberland were
completed in September, according to the engineers.

1813 President Madison directed that $140,000 be paid
from the General Fund for the road.

A Contract was let for the third section (13 miles)
of the road west of Cumberland, in August.

In September a contract was let for the fourth section
(6>^ miles) of the National Road west of Cumberland.

1815 President Madison directed that $100,000 be paid
from the General Fund for the road west of Cumber-
land, on February 14.

The Second Section of 11 miles was finished,
reported the engineers.

1816 President Monroe directed that $300,000 be paid
from the General Fund for work on the National Road
west of Cumberland.

1817 Jesse Young opened the Eagle Tavern at Main Street
and Putnam Bridge, Zanesville.

Engineers announced the third section of 13 miles and
the fourth section of 6j^ miles of the National Road
west of Cumberland had been completed.

A Contract was let for the fifth section (22 miles)
west of Cumberland.

1818 The Road was completed from Cumberland to
Wheeling, said the engineers.

Benjamin Harding opened a tavern at the corner of
Sixth and Main Streets, Zanesville, in September.

Stage Mail Coaches started operations over the road
from Washington, D. C, to Wheeling.

1819 Cost of Completing the road from Cumberland to
Wheeling reached $285,000.

42 The National Road

President Monroe directed that payment be made
from the General Funds provided by the States of Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois.

1820 On April 11, President Monroe ordered that the bal-
ance of $141,000 for completing the National Road
between Washington, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling be
paid out of any money in the United States Treasury
not otherwise appropriated.

On May 15, Congress appropriated $10,000 to lay out
a road 80 feet wide from Wheeling to the Mississippi;
the President was authorized to expend for the purpose
any monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

1822 President Monroe vetoed an act to provide for preser-
vation and repairs of the road and to establish toll gates
along the road.

1823 Congress Authorized payment of $25,000 for road
repairs between Cumberland and Wheeling.

President Monroe appointed a superintendent of
repairs to be paid at the rate of $3.00 per day.

1824 President Monroe signed the appropriation bill for
the National Road.

The Ohio Legislature conceded to the United States
power to extend the National Road through Ohio.

1825 President Monroe appropriated $150,000 for build-
ing the National Road from Wheeling to the capital of
Missouri — the Federal Government to survey, remove
trees, grade the road, and build all bridges; the States
to surface the road with at least nine inches of crushed
rock.

Ground Was Broken, on July 4, for the road west
of Wheeling, in front of the courthouse at St. Clairs-
ville, Ohio.

U. S. Commissioner Jonathan Knight reported to
President Monroe in October that the road between
Zanesville and Columbus was but one mile longer than
if it were in a perfectly straight line, and that no grade
in the road exceeded three degrees except in the 14-mile
hilly section just west of Zanesville.

1826 On March 25 there was appropriated through the
Military Service $110,749 for continuation of the
Cumberland (National) Road.

The National Road 43

In June Road Superintendents Weaver and Knight were
authorized by the War Department to make a perma-
nent location of the National Road between Fairview
(Guernsey County) and Zanesville (Muskingum
County) .

The Engineers Reported (in July) having com-
pleted five bridges between the Ohio River and Fairview
without loss of time or disability of workmen.

1827 Road Superintendent Knight made his report on
the location of the National Road, between Zanesville
and Columbus, to Congress on January 25.

On March 2, Congress appropriated, from the General
Fund, the sum of $170,000 for construction of the road
between Bridgeport and Zanesville and for continuing
the survey from Zanesville to St. Louis.

On March 2, Congress appropriated the sum of $510
due the road superintendent west of Wheeling and also
$30,000 for repairs on the road between Cumberland
and Wheeling.

In June the road was completed from Bridgeport to
St. Clairsville.

In July the road was completed from St. Clairsville to
Fairview and Cambridge.

Contracts were let, on July 21, for constructing 21
miles of the road east of Zanesville.

A Plea was made to Congress in March to lead the
National Road through Dayton and Eaton, Ohio.

The National Road between Bridgeport and Cam-
bridge was opened to the public in July; at this time
the road was paved to Fairview and graded the rest of
the way to Cambridge.

1828 Stumping Senator McDuffie of South Carolina
predicted that if Andrew Jackson were elected to the
Presidency, instead of John Quincy Adams, the road
would stop at Zanesville.

Ohio Passed a Law, on April 1 1 , assuming responsi-
bility for permanent repair of the road.

Congress Directed, on May 19, the appropriation of
$175,000 for completion of the road to Zanesville, the

44 The National Road

money to be taken from the land sale fund of Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois.

The Secretary of War relieved the President of the
duties of directing the construction of the road.

1829 On March 2. Congress authorized the appropriation
of $100,000 for opening the National Road west of
Zanesville. A contract was let for building the road
from Zanesville to Columbus.

Congress on March 2 appropriated $51,600 for laying
out the National Road to a width of 80 feet east and
west of Indianapolis. At the same time Congress
authorized the hiring of a road superintendent at $800
a year.

Congress appropriated, on March 3, $100,000 for
repairing bridges on that section of the road between
Cumberland and Wheeling.

Construction of the road between Zanesville and
Columbus was begun.

1830 Aaron L. Hunt opened a tavern in Springfield beside
the route of the National Road on January 1.

John Watson opened the Watson Hotel, a stop for all
stage coaches in the heart of Columbus, April 2.

James Robinson opened Robinson's Tavern in Colum-
bus during April.

The United States Government conveyed all fin-
ished sections of the National Road to the States through
which it passed.

Congress appropriated $215,000, mainly for opening
and grading the National Road west of Zanesville, and
in Indiana and Illinois, May 31.

In July bids were advertised for building the road west
of Columbus.

The National Road, reported the engineers, was com-
pleted to Zanesville.

Difficulties were met in keeping traffic on the road
because of damage to hooves of horses and cattle. (Only
stage coach horses were shod.)

The National Road 45

A Contract was let for building the road from Colum-
bus to Springfield.

1831 On February 4 the Ohio Legislature authorized the
erection of toll gates at 20-mile intervals (and one to
a county) on the National Road.

Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania imposed
tolls on the National Road.

Toll Gates were established on the road in Ohio.

The Secretary of War superseded the President in
the disbursing of funds for the road.

1832 Zanesville'S Seth Adams, tollkeepcr, reported the
year's National Road traffic east of Zanesville as follows:
35,310 men on horseback, 16,750 horses and mules
driven, 24,410 sheep driven, 52,845 hogs driven,
96,323 cattle driven, 14,907 one-horse carriages, 11,613
two-horse carriages and wagons, 2,357 wagons with
three horses.

John Noble opened the National Hotel and Ohio Stage
Line office in Columbus.

Henry Clay, United States Senator from Ken-
tucky, traveled the National Road frequently. When a
stage overturned, he declared to the driver: "This, sir,
is mixing Kentucky Clay with Ohio limestone."

1833 William Neil, Columbus, was refused permission, by
a State legislative vote of 18 to 17, to operate seven
steam carriages over the road.

J. Robinson ^ Sons opened a tavern in Columbus
along the road, on December 14.

The National Road was completed from Zanesville
to Columbus, according to the engineers.

Toll Charges on the National Road for the year
netted the State of Ohio $12,259.42.

1834 A Report noted there were two taverns to every mile
of the road in Ohio between the Ohio River and Zanes-
ville.

Four Stage Lines were put into operation on the
National Road in Ohio — Ohio State Company, Citizens
Line, Peoples Line, and Good Intent Line.

46 The National Road

On March 3 an act passed by Congress directed the
Secretary of War to survey the possibility of having the
road from Springfield, Ohio, to Richmond, Indiana, go
via Dayton and Eaton.

The National Road Committee of the United
States Senate, on April 5, debated continuation of the
National Road through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The United States Congress considered a bill, on
May 1 7, proposing that, after appropriations for the
road were expended, the Federal Government transfer
to the States all obligations for the National Road.
Appropriations of $652,130 were approved the same
day.

Field Superintendence of the National Road was
placed in the hands of the Topographical Bureau of the
War Department.

1835 Through an Act Congress approved the decision of
the President, made after the War Department review,
to maintain the original straight course of the road.

1836 The Superintendent of Repairs of the National
Road in Ohio was instructed, on March 1, to report to
the House of Representatives the length of time stage
coaches had run on the road since the erection of toll
gates, the amount of toll paid to December 31, 1835.
the number of coaches operated by each line, and the
average amount paid quarterly by such stage lines.

A Bill Appropriating $600,000 for the National
Road in Ohio was passed by the House and the Senate.

The Ohio Legislature passed a law placing all works
of internal improvement under the supervision of the
Board of Public Works.

1837 C. F. Dresbach ^ Co. opened a tavern on High Street,
Columbus, opposite the State House, on March 3, and
established a reputation for comfort and entertainment.

Bids Were Invited for building the National Road
west of Springfield, in August.

Contract was let for building the road west of Spring-
field.

The Post Office Department of the United States
contracted with the Great Western Express and Mail

The National Road 47

Line for carrying mails over the National Road from
Washington to St. Louis, Missouri.

Engineers' Report to the United States Government
showed the cost of the National Road to date: for the
section east of the Ohio River, $2,000,881.23; for
repairs throughout, $960,503.08; for the section
west of the Ohio River, $3,863,335.02 — a total of
$6,824,919.33.

1838 Congress on May 25 made the last of a scries of
appropriations from the fund of land sales in Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois. Its total appropriation amounted
to seven million dollars, of which two million were
spent in Ohio.

The Road was completed to Springfield.

Three Miles of the road were finished west of Spring-
field, western terminus for Congressional appropriation.

The Dayton ^ Springfield Turnpike Co. was
organized by private capital stock sold to the public, and
road building contracts were let immediately. The road
in every detail matched the National Road, even to the
extent of mile markers showing distance from Cumber-
land, Maryland. After its completion, it was often
mistaken for the National Road.

1839 The Road Superintendent in Ohio reported tolls
collected on the National Road as $40,000 for the year
1837 and $52,870.78 for the year 1838.

The National Road was graded from Springfield to
Englewood.

1840 The Road Superintendent in Ohio reported tolls
collected on the National Road for the year 1839
amounted to $51,364.67.

The National Road was graded to the Indiana State
Line.

1846 Redding Hunting, who drove the mail coach from
Washington to Wheeling, made a record run to carry
President Polk's proclamation that a state of war
existed between the United States and Mexico.

1854 The National Road from the Ohio River to Spring-
field, Ohio, was leased to private concerns.

48 The National Road

1859 The Board of Public Works of the State of Ohio
resumed control of the National Road to prevent bank-
ruptcy of the lessees,

1876 The Ohio State Legislature authorized the county
commissioners of several counties to assume control of
the National Road.

1877 New Rates of Toll were left to the discretion of the
various county commissioners.

1901 The Columbus and Buckeye Lake Electric Railway
was put into operation ; this new mode of transportation,
flanking the road from Columbus to Hebron, brought
new interest and life cast of Columbus.

1906 The Indiana, Columbus K Eastern Electric Rail-
way Company started operation, reviving interest in the
road west of Columbus; the line flanked the road from
Columbus to Springfield.

1914 Increased Automobile Traffic (122,500 registra-
tions this year) brought the need for sturdier road
surfaces.

The First Water-Bound Macadam, the first brick,
and the first concrete was used as paving material on the
road in Ohio.

1932 The First Asphalt Mixture was applied to the
surface of the road on the theory that it would not only
have better resiliency, but also provide a dark road for
the protection of the motorists' eyes.

1939 The Last Electric Line, the Cincinnati ^ Lake Eric
Traction Company, successor to the Ohio Electric Rail-
way Company, was abandoned.

1940 Traffic Flow Records show that 6,346 motor
vehicles pass a given point (near the city of Columbus)
every 24 hours. Of this amount 23.6 percent is inter-
state traffic.

The Amount of Money expended on the road through
Ohio, for maintenance only, for a period of 25 years
dating back from this year, was $11,000,000.

■tomeman Press,

Columbus, okic

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA

3 0112 050746947